Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	david_n	israel_n	king_n	20,093	5	4.5589	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70539	Pia Fraus, or, Absalom's theft being a sermon preached to a country-congregation on the thirtieth of January last, being the anniversary fast for the martyrdom of King Charles the First / by R.L., M.A.	Lawe, Robert, b. 1617 or 18.	1684 (1684)	Wing L637A; ESTC R43031	12,974	34

open force probably he had never prevailed so far therefore he lays the foundation of his Plot in secret fraud and makes use of the Foxes case to prepare a way for his after-appearance in the Lions skin III. Thirdly Let us enquire whose hearts Absalom stole The hearts of the men of Israel who were 1. The peculiar people of God solemnly dedicated to him and his service in covenant with him and highly prized by him Now to draw them into so foul an Apostacy so fatal a Conspiracy against the Lord and his Anointed was a great aggravation of his damned Impiety 2. But this is not all The men whose hearts he stole were David's Subjects tyed not onely by the Bonds of natural Allegiance to their Prince but with the most sacred Tyes of Religion a Solemn League and Covenant made before the Lord in Hebron 2 Sam. 5.3 So that he drew them not onely into Rebellion but Perjury such near affinity there is between sins of this nature 3. Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel not barely from their King but a King of Gods own immediate choice and appointment Psal 89.20 I have exalted one chosen out of the people I have found David my servant as it were by diligent search and enquiry after some excellent and heroick person with my holy oyl have I anointed him And 2 Chron. 6.6 I have chosen Jerusalem that my Name might be there and have chosen David to rule over my people Israel that under his government they might enjoy the greater felicity 4. He stole their hearts from a King whom they received with the greatest expressions of joy 1 Chron. 12.40 and not without cause if you consider how well he deserved of them by their own acknowledgment 2 Sam. 5.2 Also in time past when Saul was King over us thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel c. 2 Sam. 19.9 The King saved us out of the hand of our enemies and delivered us out of the hand of the Philistins c. In a word one that had conquered their enemies enlarged their Territories but above all reformed their Religion according to the purity of Gods Law And yet these are the men whose hearts were stoln from their confessedly-deserving Soveraign by the crafty insinuations of complemental Absalom So mutable are the opinions and affections of the giddy Multitude IV. Fourthly This will appear more clearly if we consider the next circumstance from whom the hearts of the men of Israel were stoln from no common person but a King from no foreign King but their own no unworthy dastardly Prince but an heroical magnanimous and renowned one for his Valour Wisdom Piety c. chosen of God to be the Ruler of his people as you heard before A man after Gods own heart 1 Sam. 13.14 one that did judgment and justice to all his people 2 Sam. 8.15 whatsoever the Rebel suggested to the contrary ruled them prudently with all his power fed them according to the integrity of his heart and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands Psal 78.72 This is the King whose Subjects hearts were stoln by an ungrateful Son and infamous Rebel So blind is Ambition in the Plotters and a brutish Itch after novelty in the Abettors of rebellious projects and practices against the best of Princes How much then doth it concern Princes to carry a jealous eye over that beast with many heads to suspect the fickle and unconstant disposition of the Multitude especially if poysoned with principles of Rebellion under pretences of Religion who are apt enough of themselves to grow weary of the present Government if at least it be charged true or false they never examine by their graceless Ringleaders with any irregularities or defects though such as probably cannot be avoided in the best of Governments or by the best of Governours but Absalom furatus est cor c. i. e. as one descans upon the Text excordem reddidit amentem populum he made the people stark mad by his intoxicating Allurements and Inchantments V. Fifthly By what means he stole the hearts of the men of Israel By the most vile and sordid that Hell it self could suggest and yet such as are usually practised by Rebels in their method of undermining Kingdoms as Fraud Flattery Lying Hypocrisie palpable and malicious slandering his Fathers Person and Government This obsequious Gallant puts forth his hand embraces and kisses every one that comes to him to do him obeisance 2 Sam. 15.5 Et omnia serviliter pro dominatione as Tacitus said of Otho He kissed them not out of love but designe as Judas did our blessed Lord and Saviour Mat. 26.48 not to salute but betray him We read John 12.4 and 5. how sollicitous the Hypocrite seemed to be for the good of the poor not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thief So this Traytor puts on the Cloak of feigned Humility and Humanity Holiness and Charity not that he regarded any of those or minded the happiness of the people but because he was a Thief and aimed at the Crown For what probability was there that he who was so prodigal of the bloud of his own Brother Amnon should be tender of the lives of his Subjects or that he should make conscience of preserving the Rights and Priviledges of his People who endeavoured to deprive his Prince and Father of his Regal Prerogatives or that he should consult the Peace of the Nation that wilfully involved it in an unnatural and bloudy War onely to satisfie his own ambitious Lust And yet how passionately doth the Hypocrite breath out O that I were made a judge in the land that every man that hath suit on cause might come unto me and I would do him justice How zealous would the good man be for the Peoples Welfare * Occultum insidiosum malum est perfidia cujus efficasissimae vires sunt mentiri fallere Val. Max. Prov. 10.18 He that hideth hatred with lying lips and he that uttereth a slander is a fool for says he thy matters are good and right but there is no man deputed of the King to hear thee As if he should have said Neither the King nor any of his Officers have any regard to Justice or the Publick Good a brazen-fac'd lye and shameless slander of a graceless wretch Yet with this Art he woes and wins the hearts of the men of Israel But the grand Engine to advance his hellish designe was the Traytors hypocrisie and pretence of Religion the painted Vizard that the vilest Rebels use to hide the deformity of their mischievous Plots with Religion must be a Cloak for his Rebellion a Vow must be paid in Hebron the place where his Father was first crowned King and as 't is probable where himself was born and bred amongst his Relations and Acquaintance and at some distance from the Court that he might act his part with the less suspition

'T is granted that as a prologue to the Plot he prepared him chariots and horse-men and fifty men to run before him that he might appear splendid before the People and dazle the eyes of the Vulgar who are much taken with Novelties and apt to admire such a royal Attendance and outward appearance of Grandeur Besides he invited two hundred men out of Jerusalem to grace the action who went in their simplicity and knew not any thing Yet I say Religion the pretence of it was the main and most effectual Artifice to win the Peoples affections and under the vizard of Piety to cheat them into a most impious Rebellion and Apostacy A Vow must be paid in Hebron 2 Sam. 15.7 Sacrifices must be offered there v. 12. And would so religious a Prince attempt any thing that was unlawful or unjust But see the damned hypocrisie of this flagitious Wretch these Sacrifices were offered in Designe not in Devotion First Either quod conjuratio validior esset foedere Sancita that the Conspiracy might be the stronger being ratified by a Solemn League and Covenant Thus the Guisian party in France strengthened their side by their holy League and the perfidious party of the Scots in imitation of them and 't is probable by the French advice play'd their Pranks under the same Vizard You may read their palpable Hypocrisie and Jugling in the King 's large Declaration by which they intended especially the Ringleaders of the Faction whatever they pretended to strengthen the hands of their Party and by the strictest tyes of Religion to engage incautelous Souls in one of the most villanous Rebellions that ever was hatched in Hell or acted on Earth And yet all this while see the villany of it many of the Contrivers had a secret reserve and resolution to keep it no further or longer than it should be subservient to their own ambitious and covetous ends Witness their base barbarous and treacherous delivery up of the King's person whom they were bound by the Law of Nature Nations and common Humanity to have protected into the hands of his cruel and bloud-thirsty Enemies And this too directly contrary to the tenour of their own Covenant wherein they had solemnly with hands lifted up to the most high God sworn to preserve and defend the Kings Majesty's Person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom that the World may bear witness with our Consciences of our Loyalty * Psal 55.21 The words of his mouth were smoother than butter but war in his heart his words were softer than oyl yet were they drawn swords A Psalm penned as 't is probable upon the occasion of Absalom's Conspiracy and Achitophel's Treachery Mel in ore fel in corde and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish his Majesty's just Power and Greatness And yet it is manifest that they basely sold him as Judas did his Master for a sum of money to the eternal Infamy if not of the Nation yet of those Hucksters amongst them that were employed to drive the Bargain Or else secondly that he might impiously crave the Blessing of God upon his cursed Rebellion Thus Jezebel when she thirsted after Naboth's Vineyard and life proclaimed a fast 1 Kin. 21.9 that the masque of Religion might cover the villany of so barbarous an action as the cruel Murther of so innocent a person In imitation of whom these men or Monsters amongst us who were the occasion of this days Solemnity had learnt to fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness Isai 58.4 For when they had any mischievous designe on foot they used to prepare their way by proclaiming a Solemn Fast as a pious Cheat to inveagle the credulous Multitude into an high opinion of their extraordinary Sanctity VI. Lastly For what end Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel Not to relieve the Oppressed or reform the State though these were pretended but to satisfie his ambition and avarice by making the dead Carcase of his own Father a step to the Crown and then like a Tyrant to own no Law to rule by but his own Lust A perfect Pattern of our late Rebels as will after appear And the Issue was every way correspondent to the Action a mischievous designe attended with a miserable destruction of the Arch-rebel himself and twenty thousand of his poor seduced Party 2 Sam. 18.7 And let such a fate attend all such infamous Rebels But was not the hand of Achitophel in all this 'T is probable that it was though the subtle Fox did not appear openly till Absalom's Party was grown so strong and formidable as to take the Field and bear down as he thought all opposition that could be made against it Peter Martyr thinks that he was Autor vel faltem magnus adjutor Conjurationis I am perswaded that he was both and that in compliance with Absalom's discontented ambitious and it may be revengeful humour the whole Plot was projected the Scenes divided and the Actors assigned their several parts by this subtle Polititian before there was any apparent entrance upon the execution And this appears to me probable by his readiness to attend upon Absalom's motion 2 Sam. 15.12 the desperate counsel that he gave him to make the breach irreconcilable 2 Sam. 16.21 and the offer of his own personal service to pursue weary and weak-handed David before he could recover counsel or courage to make any considerable resistance 2 Sam. 17.1 c. Which latter if it had not been defeated by the over-ruling providence of God had certainly proved destructive to his forsaken Soveraign Upon what provocation this Arch-rebel as well as Polititian engaged in this Conspiracy is uncertain But 't is certain that David esteemed and honoured him so far as to make him his chief Counsellor it may be Lord President of his Council whose counsel was of that weight and authority with David as if he had enquired at the Oracle of God 2 Sam. 16.23 Nay if we consult 55 Psal v. 13 c. where the Psalmist curses his perfidious Villany we shall find that he made him his equal his companion his bosom-friend his guide in all his affairs and actions one in whom he reposed the greatest confidence therefore 2 Sam. 15.31 it was brought as it seems as strange and unexpected news to David Achitophel is amongst the Conspirators Strange it was indeed that a person so highly honoured and obliged by the King should assault his Crown and Life with such bitter bloudy and implacable malice But we need not be curious in our inquiry after his base Treachery and ungrateful Apostacy from his own Master A plodding head and mischievous heart will never want pretences for the sordidest Villanies especially when aspiring persons conceive hopes of advancing their fortune by a compliance with and adoration of the rising Sun and that no obligations from a Prince will keep